Gather ‘round, wolves and waitresses and werepanthers, vampires and fairies and whatever you’re supposed to call Arlene’s baby’s demon doll: The third volume of the soundtrack for True Blood, everybody’s favorite gypsies-vamps-and-thieves sex-and-gore fest has arrived.

Actually, not quite yet; the official release won’t come until Sept. 6 (though you can preorder it here).

In the meantime, EW has an exclusive full stream of the album, including covers of classic songs interpreted by Neko Case and Nick Cave, Siouxsie and the Banshees, PJ Harvey and the Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano, Damien Rice, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Nick Lowe, Jakob Dylan, Massive Attack, and the late, great Gil Scott-Heron.

After the jump you’ll find the stream, as well as some background from the show’s music supervisor Gary Calamar – he also currently oversees the music selections for House and Dexter, and famously placed Sia’s “Breathe Me” in theSix Feet Under finale – on how he chose the songs for TB Vol. 3:

Gary Calamar on putting together “She’s Not There by Neko Case and Nick Cave”
When I received the first script for season 4 written by Alex Woo, the first thing I saw was the title ‘She’s Not There.’ The Zombies’ original version is a classic and I have always loved it. Initially the writer and producers had pencilled in the Santana version of the song, which is cool, but I thought perhaps we could do a new version just for True Blood. I suggested it to [creator] Alan Ball and he gave me his blessing to explore possible artists to cover it. Our talented Louisiana pal CC Adcock came up with a sexy, dark arrangement and the plan was to do a down-and-dirty duet. We had entertained the possibilty of The Kills, Florence and The Machine and Dr. John, She and Him …

I was actually filing away the new reunion Cars CD in my collection when I saw the Neko Case CDs and it hit me. Neko would be great for True Blood! I decided to follow the CD path alphabetically and came across Johnny Cash! Outstanding – but, um, not available. Next I saw Mr. Nick Cave and thought, ‘Bullseye!’ Neko Case and Nick Cave would be perfect. Can we get them? After many phone calls and emails I found that they were both fans of the show and available. It was a tri-state recording session. CC Adcock laid down the backing tracks in New Orleans, Neko did her vocals in Seattle, and Mr. Cave was in Los Angeles with his family and recorded his parts in Silverlake before heading off to Disneyland with his kids. Impeccably dressed I might add.

On Gil Scott Heron’s “Me and The Devil”
When it was first released I thought this song had True Blood written all over it. I need to find a place in the show for it. I tried it a couple of times in Season 3 but it wasn’t quite right for the scenes. Finally in Season 4 we found a great spot for it. Next came the music supervisors worst nightmare. We could not locate Gil to get him to sign off and approve. We tried desperately to reach him but… nothing. Then I got a message via Facebook that Gil Scott-Heron had passed away and [wasn’t responding because] he had been in the hospital – so tragic to lose this great artist. Now I wanted the song more than ever as a tribute and to try and share his music with the show’s fans. It was still tough to get an approval from his estate in the days after his death, but thankfully we got it, and we are very proud to have it on the soundtrack.”

On Cary Ann Hearst’s “Hell’s Bells”
This is one of those rare situations where I received Cary Ann’s ep in the mail with the note ‘check this out for True Blood.’ Honestly, I get more of these notes and CDs than I could ever listen to, and when I do, they are generally not right for the show. I had never heard of this artist from South Carolina, but the title jumped out at me and it was perfectly, bad-ass True Blood material – great discovery for me.”

Readers, what do you think–does it live up to TB soundtracks past? Let us know in the comments below.